<ol> <li>You want to accomplish a lot of things today.</li> <li><span class="highlight">You've set yourself up for a big ol' productive day.</span></li> <li><strong>"Today's the day that I excel!"</strong> you tell yourself.</li> </ol> <p>But then:</p> <ol> <li>You do the first task, trying to perfect it.</li> <li>Lunchtime hits.</li> <li>You start on Task #2.</li> <li>You end the day still trying to perfect Task #2.</li> <li>You don't get to the rest of your tasks until weeks later.</li> </ol> <p><strong>Scope creep. BOO!</strong></p> <h2>How to Start Your Day</h2> <p>If an overweight-inebriated ostrich held a gun to your face and said:</p> <ul> <li><strong>"Accomplish your today's tasks in 30 minutes or else! ROAR!"</strong></li> </ul> <h3>What'd you do?</h3> <p>You'd probably do something like this:</p> <ol> <li>Finish <strong>Task A</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> <li>Finish <strong>Task B</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> <li>Finish <strong>Task C</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> <li>Finish <strong>Task D</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> <li>Finish <strong>Task E</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> <li>Finish <strong>Task F</strong> in 5 minutes.</li> </ol> <p><strong>"DONE!"</strong> you'd scream at the ostrich.</p> <p>You get high-fives all over the place.</p> <h2>Let's Analyze That Mofo</h2> <p>Did you perfectly rock Tasks A, B, C, D, E, and F?</p> <p>Oh no, you didn't.</p> <ol> <li><span class="highlight">You didn't sit there waiting to perfect Task A until you were perfectly content with it; that'd get you shot.</span></li> <li><strong>You did what you could get by with, then moved on as quickly as possible -- avoiding the dreaded scope creep, and keeping your day productive.</strong></li> </ol> <p>Accomplishing stuff that you can "get by" with matters infinitely more than perfecting Task A.</p> <p>Completing tasks you've set for today super-rifically quickly lets you:</p> <ul> <li><strong>improve build on top of "Version 1" of the various tasks throughout the day</strong></li> <li><span class="highlight"><strong>have a security blanket</strong>; if you somehow suck the rest of the day, you've still got something that lets you flow with</span></li> </ul> <p>Start thinking:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Execute first.</strong></li> <li><span class="highlight">Perfect that execution progressively over time.</span></li> </ol> <p>That is:</p> <ol> <li><strong>Finish today's tasks freakishly quickly</strong> (e.g., 30 minutes).</li> <li><span class="highlight">Perfect those tasks throughout the day.</span></li> </ol> <h2>Quickly complete; then, beautify.</h2> 2008-06-30T21:50:00-07:00 true 667 how-to-finish-all-of-your-tasks 0 2009-11-06T21:45:47-08:00